THE NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF RIM-DRIVEN TURBINE

Abstract

Global warming and rising environmental pollution have pushed scientists and engineers to develop new energy-harnessing methods. One promising solution is converting the kinetic and potential energy contained in water into electricity using a hydraulic turbine. This thesis research will use CFD analysis to study the effectiveness of converting kinetic water energy into electric energy in a pipe for a Rim-driven Turbine (RDT), which offers the advantage of being easily installed in drainage and water running systems. Previous research in the area of RDT has demonstrated that the field contains a lot of research gaps that need to be addressed, such as a lack of material on parameters that affect performance, including cavitation, geometry, and simulations comprising different environmental conditions. Therefore, the numerical simulation of an RDT is presented focused on assessing its essential parameters, including power curves demonstrating the effectively generated energy ratio. A configuration of several RDT in series in a pipe was considered to reduce blade loading. The results show that installing RDT in series reduces the pressure drop on each turbine while nearly doubling the power output for the same pressure head in the pipe